Ocean Environmental and Surface Parameters Controlling Initial Events in Macrofouler Recruitment

Abstract

Abstract : The principal long term objective of this project was to identify and characterize those environmental, biological, and surface parameters that control the initial and rate-limiting processes of larval settlement, attachment, metamorphosis, growth and recruitment of macrofouling organisms on surface immersed in the ocean. Macrofouling of surfaces immersed in the ocean is initiated by the delivery and attachment of larvae or propagules from the plankton. Work in our laboratory conducted with support from an earlier contract from ONR revealed that settlement, attachment and metamorphosis of larvae of the mollusc, Haliotis rufescens, are controlled by the interaction between two chemosensory pathways. Receptors of the morphogentic pathway recognize a surface-associated biochemical morphogen, produced by certain marine algae and bacteria, that is required to induce larval settlement, attachment and metamorphosis.